3 ms·

".. all over the shop" is a perfectly ordinary British Isles idiom. Perhaps more widespread than that.

• pbhjpbhj 4y ago
  Yes, "all over the shop" is an adverbial expression meaning someone/something was haphazard, lacking in control, or behaving unusually. "Messi [a footballer] was all over the shop" might be said if he was regularly out of position in match, or performed uncharacteristically unskillfully. The verb is implied here. If you say "mud was all over the shop" then the only interpretation I know is that a literal shop has mud over [the inside of] it. That's not idiomatic; it's just plain language. It could work if you were talking about mud doing something unexpected; maybe a misbehaving oil well. What's your interpretation of the full expression "there's mud all over the shop"?
  • kwhitefoot 4y ago
    > What's your interpretation of the full expression "there's mud all over the shop"? Unless the conversation already included references to a building where one buys things it would just mean "there's mud all over the place".
    • pbhjpbhj 4y ago
      Which isn't an idiomatic expression; my original point.